As I continue to contemplate the future of this blog, I happen upon two moose, a kid exits a school bus and I prepare to fly to Barrow

I know - as moose pictures go, this one is fairly boring - but this is the moose picture that presented itself to me today as I set out on my walk, so it is the picture that I got.

And this is the kid-getting-off-the school bus picture that presented itself after I had walked about two miles and was returning home.

I must keep this post short. In just hours, I board a jet to Barrow and before I do, I've got to get a haircut, pick up my once broken but now repaired 16-35 mm lens as well as some other supplies and eat some tacos or something.

I fear that for the next week, my posts are likely to be tiny, next to nothing - which is the irony that I always face when I am in the field. I will be shooting pictures like crazy and I should get some pretty decent ones, but I will not have time to edit them, I will not have time to process them, my internet connection will be slow and I will be using my laptop, which is still malfunctioning because I have not been able to repair it, so I will not be able to post anything more than a token image or two per day.

I will do my best to post something every day. I can't promise, but I will do my best.

And for all of you who gave me suggestions regarding my contemplation about the future of this blog, be assured that I have read them all and am thinking about what you say.

I expect to return to Wasilla early next week and then to stay home for about three weeks before I head back into the field for a more extended stay.

I will continue the contemplation at that time and, before that three weeks is over, will seek to take at least one concrete step towards that future.

I've got to go now.

I am a very shy person, but I know that I am going to have to dance in front of a large audience at least a couple of times before this week is over.

I know it. There is no way out around it. I am going to have to do it.

I will try to make it fun.

Three from India: Bill, Vijay, and Melanie

Yesterday, my nephew Vijay left a comment on a recent post in which he made a request that I pull up a picture that he took of me at Mahabalipuram-Mamallapuram, the place where a temple is carved out of a rock.

So, as ridiculous as I look, I honor his request. You will note that my shirt is soaked with sweat. That is because it was 198.6 degrees F there. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. That's how hot it was.

And that was the coolest that it got the whole time that Melanie and I were in India.

This is Vijay himself, and Vasanthi, who is also his mom.

And here is Melanie, wandering about inside the temple cut out of a rock, the temple that was never finished.

I will not be able to post India pictures while I am in Barrow, but be certain, I will be remembering, continually.

View images as slide show

Comments

[Marilyn]

Bill, that moose photo may be "fairly boring" to you, but not to those of us not in Alaska. I love the outstretched neck of what I'm guessing is the momma moose with her baby behind her? Thanks for sharing......

Marilyn

[twain12]

what a spectacular temple, not sure i could handle the heat though....have a great trip

[sallyngarland,tx]

The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore had a special on yesterday about Barrow. It was really interesting.

[ruth deming]

the meese have such skinny seemingly delicate legs. currently i'm just finishing up a passage to india by e m forster. a scandal takes place in the marabar caves which i envision look exactly like the unfinished temple u just published. now there's a coincidence!

[D]

Those "skinny" moose legs would shock you if you ever managed to get close enough for actual scale....! Although I would prefer more distance twixt me and a cow and calf. :)

[Valeriu Ungureanu]

Beautiful images... Beautiful land... Have a dream to visit Alaska...

[Vijay]

Thanks Uncle Bill.